Amendments to TUPE and the Working Time Regulations

2024 will see a number of amendments to both the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 and its amendment in 2014 and the Working Time Regulations 1998 as a result of The Employment Rights (Amendment, Revocation and Transitional Provision) Regulations 2023.

TUPE

The new regulations, which affect transfers that take place from 1 July 2024, remove the requirements to elect employee representatives for:

• Employers with fewer than 50 employees; and
• Employers of any size involved in a transfer if fewer than ten employees.

In these cases, the employer will be able to consult directly with the affected employees, where no existing employee representatives are in place (for transfers taking place on or after 1 July 2024).

Working Time Regulations (WTR 1998)

There are a number of changes to the WTR 1998 taking effect from 1 January 2024, which are:

• A simplification of the record-keeping requirements under the WTF 1998 to maintain the requirement to keep “adequate” records, but not necessarily a full record of all daily working hours.
• A reinstatement of the effect of retained EU case law regarding carry-over of holiday in certain situations, including the inability to take holiday because of sickness and family leave.
• A repeal of the COVID-19 holiday carry-over rules, with a short transitional period to enable any accrued leave to be taken.

In addition to the above changes, the following will take effect from 1 April 2024:

• There will be a method of holiday accrual for irregular-hours and part-year workers (which may include some agency workers, depending on the nature of their contract), based on 12.07% of the hours worked in the previous pay period. For workers on sick-leave, or other family-related leave, accrual will be based on the average working hours over a 52-week reference period (for leave years starting on or after 1 April 2024.
• Rolled-up holiday pay for irregular hours and part-year workers will be permitted (For leave years starting on or after 1 April 2024).

Whatever your general views on Brexit, many employers may see this as an upside, as the government relaxes some of the more bureaucratic and arguably not particularly useful obligations previously imposed on them by European law.

The Employment Team at EMW are on hand to assists with any queries relating to TUPE and the WTR 1998.

This article was written with the assistance of Jasper Blacklock.